Environmental Capacity

Environmental Capacity of a Historic City: The Chester Experience.

Introduction

English towns or cities where termed as compact, individual settlements with strong planning, heritage and townscape through out history. Now, due to increasing pressure on development and need for good quality environment these small cities, especially the historic ones are facing pressure. Radical changes in the lifestyle and the usage of the city is causing conflicts between the user and the urban landscape. Attraction to various kinds of activities on various different scales is also adding to the pressure, directly impacting the planning and the future of towns with historic importance1.

Understanding the context

In 1992 the Department of Environment and

Environmental capacity is usually developed in relation to the natural environment and can be applied to various scales and also on a human scale. Local character plays an important role in defining the environmental capacity of a place.1

Environmental capacity and the Historic City

Defining the size of the city without loosing the fundamental character of the place was one of the main factors of development in historic cities1 Therefore, the limiting factors in relation to the local context where to be identified. For example,

• Bath, England - outward expansion was limited due to the presence of wooded valleys on all sides.

• Canterbury, England - growth was defined within the city walls of the Roman era surrounding the cathedral1.

It can be said that the combination of these limiting factors can be used in defining the environmental capacity. But is this forever or do the factors change with a change in time and development?

The main sources that helped in developing the methodology for assessing the historic towns were drawn from factors

• Phase One - the physical character of the city and the user character were analysed and the tensions/opportunities were listed. This became the initial capacity framework.

• Phase Two - The initial framework was tested against a set of scenarios which were defined by a set of indicators.

• Phase Three - After analysing, options were short listed and a list of guidelines/strategies were created to be used in planning. Thus helping the development turn more sustainable

Case study – City of Chester

Chester was one such historic city that was being affected by the pressure of development and rapid change. Issues such as unplanned development, traffic congestion, changing Urban grain, limited open spaces were some of the factors adding to the pressure.

Therefore, the main aim of the study was to identify elements that make Chester unique and then based on these elements to define the environmental capacity of the city. Thus protecting the historicity of the place but also focusing on a sustainable development. They focused on elements such as,

• Planned growth

• Rate of growth

• Ecology and environment impact

• Land use and urban